OBAMA: The Senate bill is 'not a health care bill'

President
Barack Obama onstage at his farewell address in
Chicago.AP Photo/Pablo Martinez
Monsivais

In a rare public statement, former President Barack Obama
published a Facebook
post on Thursday slamming the Senate Republicans'
healthcare bill, the details of which were released on
Thursday.

Echoing the
criticism of top Democratic lawmakers, Obama argued that the
intent of the bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act,
is not to improve healthcare, but to hand a "massive" tax break
to wealthy individuals and businesses.

"The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill," he
wrote. "It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and
poor families to the richest people in America."

Obama did not mince words in predicting that, if the bill is
passed next week, it would harm vast numbers of Americans.

"Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or
start a family – this bill will do you harm," he wrote. "It
would raise costs, reduce coverage, roll back protections, and
ruin Medicaid as we know it," according to healthcare providers
and non-partisan analysts.

He listed the ways in which the bill would reduce coverage.

"Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and
higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working
families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer
cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions,"
Obama wrote. "Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions
could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose
coverage entirely."

Obama also repeated a claim that he has made in the past: that he
would support a Republican healthcare bill that improved upon his
signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act.

"If Republicans could put together a plan that is demonstrably
better than the improvements we made to our health care system,
that covers as many people at less cost, I would gladly and
publicly support it," Obama wrote.

He concluded that the healthcare debate is "something bigger than
politics," and defines the nature of America.

"It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we
aspire to be," he said.

The Better Care Reconciliation Act of would roll back much of the
Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare), including
various tax provisions, and scale back funding that goes toward
health coverage for low-income Americans and tax credits for
middle-income earners who purchase their own health insurance.

The plan would also provide funding designed to help stabilize
the Obamacare insurance markets in the near term and funnel money
through programs to cut off access to funding for abortion
providers.

Moderates in the Senate are concerned about the bill's
slashing of Medicaid spending. Obamacare's Medicaid
expansion, which extended the program to those making 100% to
138% of the federal poverty limit, would be phased out over three
years starting in 2020.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for a vote
on the bill by the end of next week.